Grade 8 Poetry Booklet Term 1: 1. The Aliens Have Landed! by Kenn Nesbitt 2. Betty Botter by Carolyn Wells 3. The Sea by James Reeves 4. An African Thunderstorm by David Rubadiri Term 2: 5. Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll 6. The Rose That Grew From Concrete by Tupac Amaru Shakur 7. Pardon my French By Edlynn Nau 8. Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost Term 3: 9. This Is Just To Say by William Carlos Williams 10. A Fairy Song by William Shakespeare Term 4: 11. Life of a Teenager by Janneke Tenvoorde 12. Walls by Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali
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Grade 8
Poetry Booklet
Term 1:
1. The Aliens Have Landed! by Kenn Nesbitt
2. Betty Botter by Carolyn Wells
3. The Sea by James Reeves
4. An African Thunderstorm by David Rubadiri
Term 2:
5. Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll
6. The Rose That Grew From Concrete by Tupac Amaru Shakur
7. Pardon my French By Edlynn Nau
8. Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost
Term 3:
9. This Is Just To Say by William Carlos Williams
10. A Fairy Song by William Shakespeare
Term 4:
11. Life of a Teenager by Janneke Tenvoorde
12. Walls by Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali
Page 2 of 18
TERM 1
Page 3 of 18
The Aliens Have Landed!
by Kenn Nesbitt
The aliens have landed!
It's distressing, but they're here.
They piloted their flying saucer
through our atmosphere.
They landed like a meteor 5
engulfed in smoke and flame.
Then out they climbed immersed
in slime
and burbled as they came.
Their hands are greasy tentacles. 10
Their heads are weird machines.
Their bodies look like cauliflower
and smell like dead sardines.
Their blood is liquid helium.
Their eyes are made of granite. 15
Their breath exudes the stench of foods
from some unearthly planet.
And if you want to see these
sickly, unattractive creatures,
you'll find them working in your school; 20
they all got jobs as teachers.
Activity:
Discuss the use of poetic devices in this poem.
Draw a visual representation of the alien as described in the poem.
Alliteration is the use of the same consonant sounds in words that are near each other, they can
generate a sound that is almost absurd, and therefore comedic and entertaining.
One of the most popular examples of alliteration that children enjoy is tongue twisters. Tongue
twisters, as you can guess by the name, gets your tongue into all kinds of trouble when it comes to
speaking quickly because the repetition of alliterations and similar sounds quite literally tie your
tongue (well, not literally, but you get the picture.)
Activity:
Write a “Tongue Twister” poem using alliteration. The poem must be 6 – 12 lines.
Page 5 of 18
The Sea James Reeves The sea is a hungry dog, Giant and grey. He rolls on the beach all day. With his clashing teeth and shaggy jaws Hour upon hour he gnaws 5 The rumbling, tumbling stones, And 'Bones, bones, bones, bones! ' The giant sea-dog moans, Licking his greasy paws. And when the night wind roars 10 And the moon rocks in the stormy cloud, He bounds to his feet and snuffs and sniffs, Shaking his wet sides over the cliffs, And howls and hollos long and loud. But on quiet days in May or June, 15 When even the grasses on the dune Play no more their reedy tune, With his head between his paws He lies on the sandy shores, So quiet, so quiet, he scarcely snores 20
Questions
1. Outline the main idea in each stanza.
2.1 Give the rhyme scheme of the poem.
2.2 Discuss the use of rhyme in stanza 1.
3.2 Find one way in which the metaphor is sustained in each stanza.
3.2.1 stanza 1
3.2.2 stanza 2
3.2.3 stanza 3
3.2.4 stanza 4
4.1 Discuss the effectiveness of the metaphor as it is used in
Are there any struggles you feel may be blocking your ambitions or goals? Write a reflective
paragraph (100-150 words) discussing what you feel blocks your ambitions and goals,
mention how you plan on overcoming them. Remember your “struggle” is different from
everyone else’s.
Page 11 of 18
PARDON MY FRENCH By Edlynn Nau
She swore like a sailor and what did it mean? Did he cuss as a pause... were their cohorts unclean? Were their vocabularies lacking 5 in something rich or refined? Did they swear in frustration, were their expletives unkind? Was she to quit swearing when dad counts to five? 10 Did he pay at the cuss jar in a ten dollar crash dive? Must they think of real words and substitute when they can? Should they change their slang 15 before, the *#!% hits the fan? It's a hard thing to do in replacing letters of four. His teacher says,"try five," Her's says,"try a few more!" 20 Her Mom says more letters is just what she needs. And he tries to count five but, his Urban impedes. The kids say, four letters 25 are not that dirty or bad! Why must they change them when they like what they've had. There is power in speech and it tells all about us. So use five letter words 30 and please, do not cuss. The kids were too literal in the teaching they heard. They discovered, in short, FIVE, is a four letter word. 35
Activity:
Write a paragraph explaining why you think swearing (cussing/using expletives) has become
socially acceptable? Are you allowed to do it? Are there words in the English language that
can be used in their place instead?
Page 12 of 18
Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day,
Nothing gold can stay
Activity:
Work through the questions on the PowerPoint and analyse the poem together as a class.
Page 13 of 18
TERM 3
Page 14 of 18
This Is Just To Say by William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which 5
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious 10
so sweet
and so cold
Activity & Discussion:
Is the writer really sorry for eating the plums? What do they notice about the
poem that’s different than other poems?
Brainstorm things we apologize for, but maybe don’t actually regret. Give an
example or two from your own life.
Write a poem, similar to ‘This is just to say’, using your ideas from your
brainstorm.
Page 15 of 18
A Fairy Song by William Shakespeare
Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire!
I do wander everywhere, 5
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the Fairy Queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green;
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see; 10
Those be rubies, fairy favours;
In those freckles live their savours;
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
Activity:
Analyse the poem with your teacher.
Use your tablet to look up words/phrases you don’t understand
Page 16 of 18
TERM 4
Page 17 of 18
Life of a Teenager by Janneke Tenvoorde
Many have told me
That your teen years
Are the best part of your life,
Though to me and my peers
It doesn’t seem so. 5
They are filled with strife.
They are filled with fears.
These growing up years.
I was a child before,
With no worries. 10
None at all.
But I’m not that young no more.
As in to adolescence I fall,
I realize
That life’s not that easy at all. 15
I have to make decisions now,
But the hardest part of all
Is trying to fit in.
Knowing how to tie
In bow or pin. 20
Knowing what to wear
Jeans or a hat.
Knowing what to say
Soft or loud.
Activity:
As I’m trying to fit in
With the crowd. 25
Looking in the mirror
I see me,
Trying to be
Not who I am,
But who they are. 30
As a teen
I have a lot of worries,
That before
I had never seen.
Until it starts. 35
As I first encounter love,
And discover broken hearts.
As its all I talk of.
Another party,
It’s tomorrow night. 40
My friends want me to come along,
Though I’m not sure it’s right.
My parents say it’s wrong,
Though I wanna go.
And what do parents know? 45
It’s stressing me out,
All these decisions.
That’s why I doubt,
That teenage life is as easy
As they say it is. 50
1. Do you agree with the poets’ point of view about life as a teenager? What do
you agree or disagree with?
2. What kind of struggles do teenagers have to contend with today?
3. Write a poem in which you reflect on some of the struggles you ensure as a